Help!! Everybody has fleas!

PrettyInPink

PrettyInPink

<3
Jun 24, 2006
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#1
ALL of our animals have fleas! We've bathed the dogs with Pert Plus and treated them with Frontline. Bathed the cats [which was NO EASY feat!] with Pert Plus and sprayed the furniture and carpets. And, I've been vacuuming like a CRAZY person. But, we STILL have fleas! We know that our black lab got them from the dog behind us. And, now EVERYONE has them... and, we can't get rid of them! ANY ideas of what else we can do? :wacko:
 
#3
I feel for you. We are free of fleas now and Advantage seems to take care of them for our cats. In the past when I had fleas I used Borax on the carpets. You sprinkle it on, leave it for a time, then vacuum. It's supposed to dry the fleas up and they die. I don't remember the exact procedure but I'm sure you can find online. It's cheap and non-toxic.
GL
 
#4
Sevin dust the yard or outside areas where they run, play, etc. Sevin dust their sleeping areas too. It can also be used directly on the pets. It's not harmful, but I would try not to breathe it in. (Same for the pets.)
 
#5
Years ago at my parents house 1 out of the 2 outdoor family dogs was infested with fleas. It was so bad.. that the fleas got into the house as well.

We ended up treating the backyard with a flea-spray down, flea dipped both dogs, and fogger bombed the house.

There's also Diatomaceous Earth sold on Amazon or you can purchase it at a hardware store or pet store- the pet stores tend to be a little more expensive. This stuff is non-toxic and dries the fleas up.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00127Q860/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000BQT1HQ&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=16DXDZ3VRAEXA6AW7QXE

Product description: D.E. (Diatomaceous Earth) is a non-toxic, safe substance made up from fossils of freshwater organisms and crushed to a fine powder. The powder particles resemble bits of broken glass when observed thru a microscope. Deadly to any insect or larvae, D.E. scratches the insect's waxy outer shell causing death by dehydration. D.E is completely harmless to all animals, fish, birds or in food. This makes D.E. (Diatomaceous Earth) an excellent natural topical dusting powder for animals with fleas, ticks, lice and other external pests. D.E. (Diatomaceous Earth) can also be used as a oral nutritional supplement in feed or fed straight during parasite season for animals with skin and coat needs associated with internal parasites.


If the topical stuff isn't working, you can try Comfortis which is taken orally & is avail. through vet offices.

G-luck!
 
#6
I always use Scalibor collars for my dogs against ticks, fleas and mosquitos and Bayer collars for my cats.
During some summers, it seems that fleas developped some kind of immunity to those products and they weren't enough, as a result my house was full of fleas, they bite mostly the legs of humans cause they do not fly, only walk on the floor and jump. Do not mix them with mosquitos' bites cause you might imagine never ending fleas problem after having extinguished them!
I used Bolfo spray for all rooms floors, the animals beds and my bed matresses, bedspreads and so on.
I used except from above products, Frontline spray for cats and Advantix capsules for all dogs, for some of them more than once, (one may use Advantix capsules each 15 days in extreme circumstances), but it is substantial all products used for dogs to be applied in all of them in same time, and all products used for cats to be applied in all the cats simultaneously.
Careful cause Advantix if licked by cats can be lethal, always keep cats away from dogs until Advantix on their hair is completely dry.
(My cats sleep together with my dogs, that's why I say it).
If all above is not enough one can always shampoo dogs with some special product for fleas, although I never shampoo cats.
When thinking having extinguished fleas as I said before, maybe psychologically one needs support, so I used to place on each floor's room a bowl with soap water under a lamp (table lamp, reading lamp) if fleas still exist, one or two will drop inside, if they do not drop, they do not exist any more, end of alarm.
During above process it's understood I was washing all clothes of the house (curtains, sheets and blankets and my own clothes) in the washing machine again and again.
When one has fleas on the house he'll know it, when not I believe it's enough a collar and some capsule, but one must be careful of new-comers.
A new animal is better to be sprayed with Frontline even before to come close to the house.
Good luck!
 
#7
^^^^Just did the same thing. We spray and vacumn every other day. We already washed all the linens and sprayed what we couldn't wash. You just have to be very vigilante and do it over and over again. Might try the DE or the Borax method though for the carpets.
 
#8
The fleas are really bad this year, I've heard it from multiple so many people here lately.

Mr. MM buys some kind of special yard pesticide for fleas and ticks. I have no idea what it's called, all I know is he complains about buying it because it costs over $100 to do our yard and he has to do it every month (I think). I believe we are the only neighbors that treat their yard, if everyone did, we may not have the problems we've had this year. It really irritates me that we seem to be the only house that cares.

We dose with Frontline, usually, but I switched to Advantix this time. I dosed them in August with the usual and it did little to nothing, Advantix has done the trick so far. The vet said a lot of people are switching brands as the fleas are resistant this year.

I now have the fleas gone, but their poor skin is suffering. Now I have to wash them with medicated was twice a week to get the irritations under control.
 
#9
I went through this last week!!! My friend works at a vets office and gave me great advice and it helped so much.

Make sure you wash everything in hot water that might have flea eggs in it, vacuum along the baseboards of your house because they like to lay eggs there too. look into doing a flea bomb for the yard/house... frontline is good but it only makes the fleas go away after they bite their skin because it tastes icky to them (doesn't make larva and eggs go away).

The best thing we did was give the animals a pill called Comfortis. It becomes effective within 30 minutes and gets rid of everything. It's pricey, but WORKS! I was surprised how fleas manage to get into everything and how hard they are to get rid of... it's so gross :sad:

good luck :smile:
 
#10
When my childhood persian cat got fleas, the only thing that worked was repeated baths with flea shampoo and combings (ugh, imagine with that long persian hair--and he HATED to be groomed!), and lots of carpet treatments. They are really persistent in the carpet and will re-infest from there.
I don't know if someone's mentioned this, but have you considered the various flea meds for your pets (Advantage, etc)? I know some people aren't fans for various reasons, but they have always been effective in my experience (and no adverse effects).
 
#11
In addition to everything posted above...it's going to be key to speak to the owner of the lab which originally had the fleas. We switched from frontline to vectra 3D; seems to do a better job.
 
#13
My dog had fleas about a year ago and it was so hard to get rid of them in the house. We vacuumed and sprayed every day and after two weeks, they went away.
Side note - If you see them on a hard surface, try to catch them. If you pour water over them, they cannot leap.
 
#14
oggers86 said:
My housemates cats once had fleas and we tried everything to get rid of them. Nothing worked so we had to have the entire house fumigated...
Click to expand...

Cat fleas are the worst. I guess they're completely different from dog fleas and a huge PITA to get rid of. I had a best friend in High School who had 2 indoor/outdoor cats and when she spent the night at my house she'd bring fleas from her house with her in her clothes and backpack!!!!!! We didn't have a pet at the time so we knew it was her. :Push: We had to flea bomb every room several times to get rid of them...it felt like months before I went without bites all over my body, including my face.

Anyway, we had a falling out (not flea related) and I 'acquired' a new best friend :lol: and SHE had a flea problem at her house too because of her Mom's cat. She never brought them over to my house like the other friend but I couldn't spend the night at her house because I'd get bit up like whoa.

Anyway, I think cats are the bringers of evil now because of that. And because I think they could totally eat your brain out while you slept but that's just me.
 
#15
^Fleas are fleas. The same type feeds on dogs and cats.:shrugs:

OP -- You need to treat all of your pets and your entire home. Not just the dogs. I am not sure why you are using Pert to bathe the cats. I haven't heard of that actually working. They may still have fleas on them and that could be perpetuating the cycle. Capstar can kill off fleas pretty darn quickly -- even if your pet is crawling with them.

It sounds like you need to treat your house -- either use Borax or a flea bomb. Treat your home immediately after you treat your pets. Try putting a flea collar in your vacuum when you vacuum up the entire house.
 
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